DUI Lawyers in Hamburg, NJ

I’ve been to more food and wine festivals than I can count. Hey, I’m not complaining! These culinary extravaganzas are a haven for learning about and sampling scrumptious dishes and delectable wines.

Last weekend at the New Jersey Food and Wine Festival at Crystal Springs Resort, I was pleasantly surprised with some unusual facts.

The event featured some of the world’s finest chefs and winemakers. Founded 15 years ago, the festival draws thousands of people from New Jersey and surrounding states to enjoy a foodie weekend like no other.

On to the list.

Immigrant roots

Crystal Springs Chief Operating Officer Robby Younes is a Lebanese immigrant who came here in 1999 at the age of 19, escaping the civil war in his country.

“I came to the United States with $700 in my pocket,” Younes said. “I first opened a restaurant in Paterson, then worked in the hospitality industry. I came to Crystal Springs Resort in 2008.

“I started this festival in 2010 in a ballroom with 30 people, and now we have international chefs and winemakers, along with up to 3,000 people from all over the region. We grew year by year, and we continue to feature some outstanding chefs and winemakers,” Younes added.

“I’ve always loved food. I grew up with my grandmother harvesting asparagus and mushrooms from the garden. She milked the goats and made her own cheese and labneh (Lebanese yogurt), and she pressed her own olive oil.”

You gotta love these stories that make you feel warm inside.

Sustainability

Crystal Springs Resort has the Northeast’s largest resort-based solar farm, comprised of 19,000 solar panels on 25 acres and generating 3.5 megawatts annually. This output is greater than the combined power consumption of the resort’s two hotels: The Grand Cascades Lodge and the Minerals Hotel.

Save the bees

Resort beekeeper JC Cornell gave a talk about “His girls”, the bees! The resort has been involved in initiatives that deal with issues plaguing the bees. “Bees lie at the heart of our survival and are essential to the health and prosperity of our fragile environment,” Cornell said. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, more than half of North America’s 4,000 native bee species are in decline, with one in four at risk of extinction.

Humbled by fire

One of the events at the festival was experiencing the food of Argentinian celebrity chef Francis Mallmann. An expert in cooking over an open fire, Mallmann dazzled attendees with his creations. “You see the possibilities of fire, the fragility. It’s not a rough thing. It’s an extremely tender way of cooking,” Mallmann said. “The wood, the cauldron, the ashes, the flames, between all these, we can almost cook anything.”

When you think of fire as that basic thing we need to survive as a species, it’s humbling indeed.

Top Chef

Three fan favorites from Bravo’s Top Chef show returned to the festival: Savannah Miller, Michelle Wallace and Soo Ahn. The chefs collaborated with Restaurant Latour and served a five-course dinner with wines from some of the world’s best winemakers. Dinner included a bluefin tuna crudo, octopus bulgogi, roasted maitake mushroom, lamb Dijon and a Panna Cotta for dessert.

Worldly wines

Accompanying the five-course dinner were wines introduced by their winemakers. Each winemaker spoke about their wine while holding the bottle like one holds a newborn baby! Wine regions included the Willamette Valley in Oregon, Provence in France, and Abruzzo in Italy. I gained an entirely new respect for wine making while watching these visionaries talk about their wines with passion reserved for the dear and the sacred.

Time to go Underground

As one of the premier wine cellars in North America, this architectural marvel encompasses nine interconnected chambers housing one of the world’s best wine collections. The Crystal Springs Resort wine cellar was built by resort founder Gene Mulvihill and is curated by Younes and Wine Director Susanne Wagner.

“I have worked at Crystal Springs for 22 years and have seen the resort transform into a world-class destination,” Wagner said. “I’ve had the opportunity to learn about wine and oversee our unparalleled wine cellar that draws guests from all over the country and the world.”

There was one more thing that intrigued me at the New Jersey Food and Wine Festival at Crystal Springs Resort. This thing is intangible and hard to define, but I’ve noticed plenty of it over my three years in New Jersey. I call this elusive thing: New Jersey grit.

New Jersey folks are one of a kind - no pretentiousness, no showing off, just down to earth and enjoying life to the fullest.

If you want one of those bucket-list trips next year, plan to attend the New Jersey Food and Wine Festival at Crystal Springs Resort. You’ll thank me later!

WAYNE — A Nerf battle arena will soon open on Hamburg Turnpike, promising to entertain legions of partygoers in foam-based warfare.

The business, called NJ Battle Zones, will take over a storefront last occupied by a Crunch Fitness gym at Wedgewood Plaza, a shopping center at 1055 Hamburg Turnpike.

Participants are equipped with Nerf weapons — known as Nerf Blasters — and unlimited ammunition in the shape of foam bullets or darts. They wear eye protection during safe and structured games, such as capture the flag, supervised by referees.

Danielle Samaniego, who co-owns the business with her husband, Roy Samaniego, said the Wayne facility should open before the end of winter. They searched throughout the township for two years before choosing a location, she said.

“We tried to find the perfect spot, and we found it,” she said Wednesday. “We’re so excited.”

The Randolph couple opened the first NJ Battle Zones location in their hometown in October 2021. That facility, at 10 Middlebury Blvd., is smaller and tucked in an industrial park.

Danielle Samaniego, also a nurse anesthetist at Saint Clare’s Denville Hospital, said the new facility of 10,500 square feet will have two spaces for Nerf battles. The additional room will allow more walk-in customers for open play, she said.

The idea for the business came after Samaniego could not find a Nerf battle arena to host a birthday party for her son.

Samaniego said she then told her husband in a not-so-serious tone that they should open their own.

“I jokingly said to him, I’m like, ‘Wow — this is a good business idea,’” she recalled.

That casual observation inspired Roy Samaniego to quit his job in accounting to concentrate on the startup venture. In its first year of operation, the Morris County facility hosted more than 900 events. It now averages 10 events per weekend.

Meanwhile, the couple partnered with a friend who is preparing to open a third Nerf battle arena in the small city of Centennial, Colorado, about 16 miles south of Denver. It is also scheduled to open this season.

The couple run the business like a true mom-and-pop. Danielle Samaniego said they tend to restock their arsenal of Nerf blasters when “stuff is on sale.”

She said her clients are excited for the business to expand. “The community has been amazing,” she said. “Our phone calls and emails and inquiries are constant.”

Besides birthday parties for children, NJ Battle Zones offers adults-only events and team-building events for up to 100 people. Stay informed about the opening of its new facility by following it on Facebook or Instagram.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news in your community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.